The group established direct but clandestine links with the Kingdom of Romania (which they regarded as their mother country), and circulated Romanian-language books. Deșteptarea men protested against Russification with letters sent to Nikolay Chkheidze and other Imperial Duma deputies. They remained in contact with Pelivan, who was being kept under close surveillance by Russian authorities. In 1912, the Gendarmes intercepted Pelivan's letter to Murafa, Mateevici and Ciugureanu, in which Pelivan advised them not to seek integration into the Russian bureaucracy. Russia, Pelivan advised, was "the enemy". Cuvânt Moldovenesc and World War service In May 1913, sponsored by the landowner Vasile Stroescu, Nicolae Alexandri and Murafa set up Cuvânt Moldovenesc, a nationalist newspaper. In its opening manifesto, the newspaper depicted Bessarabia as engulfed by "the darkness of ignorance", taking over the intellectual mission of enlightening the Romanian-speaking masses; the first issue also featured Murafa's educational essay, Cine-s moldovenii? ("Who Are the Moldavians?"). From 1914, taking over from Alexandri, Murafa became the Cuvânt Moldovenesc director. His arrival followed a rift between the revolutionary mainstream of Romanian nationalism in Bessarabia and Alexandri's vague Tolstoyism. Murafa made a mark of his leadership by publishing, for the first time ever, Mateevici's patriotic poem, Limba noastră. He continued to organize charity concerts, in which he occasionally sang as a baritone. Murafa's nationalist cause was enticed by the events of World War I, during which he served, with the rank of Major, in both the Imperial Russian Army and the Russian Red Cross, commanding a Sanitary Detachment. In autumn 1916, when the Romanian Kingdom joined Russia and the other Entente Powers, Murafa and his Detachment were sent on the Romanian Front. Particularly after the February Revolution in Russia, he used this position to agitate among the Bessarabian soldiers, supporting a Bessarabian-Romanian union. At Fălticeni, Murafa had an encounter with Romanian soldier-novelist Mihail Sadoveanu, with whom he discussed the cause of Bessarabian Romanians. According to Sadoveanu's memoirs, Murafa, "that strong and lively 'Moskal' with sparkling eyes", believed that Romanian-language books were the "seed" and "gospel" of a patriotic awakening; hence, he encouraged his subordinates to smuggle as many books as they could from Romania to Russia. Halippa describes him as "the liaison between us and Romania". In March 1917, Murafa was again in Bessarabia, and in contact with the Romanian opinion-maker, Onisifor Ghibu, who had escaped from Transylvania. Another Transylvanian, Romulus Cioflec, joined him in editing Cuvânt Moldovenesc.